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Documentation & User Guides | Fotoware

Creating a marker

What are markers

Markers are visual indicators you can customize to alert users about files in your collections that meet certain criteria. For example, you can display a marker if a file contains a certain string in a metadata field to alert a user. Markers can be made interactive, so that clicking on a marker can execute a metadata macro, open a metadata editor, execute a webhook or navigate to a certain url. This way you can use markers to control your workflow by simply changing the state of a metadata field to control which stage in the workflow it is at. Note that interactive, Extended markers, are available to Fotoware Main Users and Fotoware Pro users, not legacy Standard Users. (More info about Extended markers found below.)

Each marker has an access list that controls which groups or users can access it and optionally trigger an action if the marker has been made interactive.

Creating a marker

Creating a new marker

To create a new marker, go to the Workflows tab in the FotoWeb site configuration, then select the Markers node in the panel on the left and click on the Add marker button. Start by naming your marker and adding a description to it. The description will show as a tooltip when hovering the mouse cursor over it.

Standard vs Extended markers

Two types of markers exist in FotoWeb - Standard markers and Extended markers. The differences are outlined in the table below.

Standard markers are available to all registered users - with a Standard, Plus or Pro license

Extended markers are available only to Fotoware Main Users or Fotoware Pro Users. Users with a legacy Standard user license will not see Extended markers.

Functionality

Standard markers

Extended markers

Visual indicator to reflect a metadata state

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Custom marker icon

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Custom marker placement

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Interactivity when marker is clicked:

   

Metadata editing

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Application of preset metadata macro

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Execution of webhook

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Navigate to preset URL

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Setting conditions for displaying the marker

Next, you have to set the condition for showing the marker. This is done by selecting a field and entering an expression that must be matched to display the marker. Note that the marker evaluation is carried out on the client side, not on the FotoWeb server.

Tip: For help on creating regular expressions, please refer to this Wikipedia article on regular expressions (external link, opens in new tab)

Using dynamic tags in marker conditions

Dynamic tags can be used when setting marker conditions, such as when evaluating greater/smaller than and to add date evaluation.

Example: 

To create a marker that's displayed on assets that have "Expired", you can use the Expiry Date field (#428) as the basis for the marker.

In the Marker Conditions, choose Before (Date) and then in the Expression field, type:

{{now}}

This will translate to the current date and time in ISO format, so that all files with an expiry date before the current date and time will be displayed with a marker.

Choosing a marker icon

Finally, choose the marker you would like to appear when the marker condition is met. For standard markers you can choose an icon and a color. Extended markers offer a greater choice of marker options and  setting of the marker's position on the asset's thumbnail.

Note:

If users are logged on to FotoWeb while the administrator is setting up or modifying markers, it will be necessary to log out and back in to display the new markers.